Edmonton Radial Railway Society Blog

New streetcars, parades, and exclusive tours on Saturday, June 7!

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 15:35:08 GMT

Lots in store for our very first "Streetcar Saturday"

Want to see a NEW streetcar? How about TWO? Well, mark your calendar. ERRS will be debuting two newly restored streetcars on June 7, 2025 at Fort Edmonton Park!

Regina Municipal Railway 42 is a steel-body passenger streetcar built in 1928 and a rare survivor of Regina’s 1947 streetcar barn fire. This car is a key piece of Regina’s transit history.

Saskatoon Municipal Railway 200 is a combination snow sweeper & line car built in 1907 - one of only a handful of operational snow sweepers left in North America.

Regina 42 and Saskatoon 200 will be officially debuting on Streetcar Saturday, part of Transportation Week at Fort Edmonton Park. These two cars have taken almost 30 years to complete, and we’re very excited to finally share them with everyone!

We’ve got a bunch of special streetcar events planned for the day, showing off both Regina 42, Saskatoon 200, and our collection as a whole.

We will be running all seven of our operational cars in a Seven Car Debut parade twice throughout the day, with parades running through the park from 10:00-11:30am and again from 1:00-2:30pm. This will be the most streetcars ERRS has ever run at once!

Regina 42 will be in service all day. Be sure to catch a ride! Saskatoon 200 will also be out on static display between parades.

Our streetcar barn will be open for guests to tour through. This is where all of our maintenance and restoration work happens, and it is rarely open to the public. If you have ever wondered what it takes to maintain our 100-year-old fleet, this is the place to see!

When not in service or on parade, we’ll have our full operational fleet out on static display for guests to check out!

Streetcar Saturday is Jun 7, 2025 at Fort Edmonton Park. The whole event is part of regular admission to the park, which can be purchased/booked at fortedmontonpark.ca. We’re so excited to share these new additions to our fleet with everyone, so please join us June 7 and join in the fun!

The McKernan Line: Edmonton's Toonerville Trolley

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 16:30:35 GMT

Along Whyte Avenue By Trolley
By Tony Cashman
The Edmontonian, August 1965

Streetcar #20 ar Whyte Ave and 104 Street, May 1946. Library and Archives Canada, 3524704

Note: The McKernan stub line operated from November 1913 until August 1947, between Whyte Ave & 104 Street, and 76th Ave & 116 Street. As the track deteriorated over time, the line became valued for its quirks as much as it was valued for the lifeline it provided residents. After its turning-Y was removed and the line could only accommodate double-ended cars (streetcars with driving equipment at both ends), Cars 1, 3, 10, and 20 each served as the “Toonerville Trolley". Celebrated local historian Tony Cashman wrote the following article for the now-defunct publication The Edmontonian in 1965, and it is being shared here to commemorate the 77th year since streetcars trundled down the McKernan line.

There’s been excitement in Edmonton these past eighteen years, these years of boom and growth and spreading horizons. But there’s been some excitement missing too, because it’s been eighteen years since the Toonerville Trolley made its last wild scramble down 76th Avenue, past McKernan Lake, past Curry’s riding stables, and into the bush at 118th Street. (One night it went literally into the bush when the people in the house near the end of the line forgot to leave their porch light on—the signal for the motorman to slow down).

It’s been eighteen years and yet it only seems like yesterday that Bob Chambers, the literary Scot, was at the controls and would start away from Whyte Avenue and 104th Street just as a passenger was running up—and the passenger would put on a burst of speed, yank the trolley off and go around the far side of the car and hop on while Bob came down the other side to re-engage the trolley with the electric wire; the wire that gave the car energy for its bucketing, barrelling carrers into the wilds.

In summer the car’s style of progress suggested a demented grasshopper. In winter it suggested a fox terrier which has suddenly come out on a skating rink while in hot pursuit of a car. And in winter it seems only yesterday that the Toonerville Trolley was running; although it’s been gone eighteen years.

It seems only yesterday that the kids would amuse themselves by setting thunderflashes on the tracks—which would be set off by the car running over them and blow with such a commotion that Bob would stop the car and get out and look under it to see what part of its interesting mechanism had fallen off.

The Toonerville Trolley had equipment that was not standard on cars of the sophisticated metropolitan lines. There was the sandbox for example. The sandbox had a handle to shoot sand onto the track if that slight rise west of 111th Street happened to be icy. The idea was that if Bob couldn’t get traction he could shoot the tracks full of sand and the car would surge ahead. But the kids had so much fun shooting sand that Bob would often be firing blanks when the car lost the violent momentum which gave it so much of its character. It was always violent, even at twelve miles an hour; the roadbed insured that.

But if Bob couldn’t drive the car up the incline it didn’t matter much. The Toonerville Trolley could be driven with equal ferocity from either end—unlike the cars on the more sophisticated metropolitan lines. Bob would just take his motorman’s crank to the other end and head back to Whyte Avenue and 104th Street. Where there’d be more sand and, more than likely, some young passengers bound for winter sport.

For all thirty-six years of its existence the Toonerville Trolley was the car of the skater, the skier, and the toboggan rider. In summer there was good reason for Bob Chambers and other motormen to bucket past McKernan’s Lake with all the momentum at their command. On certain hot days the fragrance off the lake was hardly up to the Standards of Miss Coco Chanel. But in winter when the lake froze and was cleared for skating the young sports breathed an essence that Coco Chanel could never hope to catch in a bottle.

As the years went on and the lake sank deeper and deeper into the mud and eventually dropped from sight, new winter sports opened up at the end of the line. The skiing was good along the rustic bends of Saskatchewan Drive. And there was a toboggan slide down the hill and across the river. And in 1936 the Toonerville Trolley gained a summer sport to take people to. That was the year Wallace Curry moved in from his farm at Vermilion and started the riding stables. Wallace lived in a house at 112th Street on the south side of 76th Avenue. The stables and the fifty horses were out behind, and out behind that there was all the open country the equestrians of Edmonton could ever hope to ride over.

Bob Chambers, the Scottish motorman, figured a man named Wallace Curry must be all right and they became close friends. So close that Bob took to using the telephone in the Curry house. Once or twice a week the Currys would hear the car coming to unscheduled stop, and then Bob would be pounding up the steps and asking for the use of the telephone. In return Bob would let Wallace ride free for a few blocks when Mr. Curry went west to check the standpipe from which the stables—and some residents of the area—drew their water.

It was an eminently fair arrangement and if the management of the transit system didn’t know it, it was still fair. However, one day when Wallace got on for his free ride Bob was feeling grumpy. He sometimes was. And after grumping for a block he said “Ya be’er pu' a tacket in the box.” Wallace did but the next time Bob came pounding up the steps to get at the phone he told him: “Ya be’er pu’ a nickel in the phone.”

A few years later, when the war was on, one of the boys on Bob’s run was leaving for overseas. It was one of the boys who had put thunderflashes on the track and shot off all the sand. When he got on the car to ride to the station, Bob called him up front. “Here,” he said, “here’s somethin’ tha’ll keep ya warrum on the train.” Bob’s present was a bottle. And it contained a product of Scotland which ranked in worth second only to the Scottish products of Robert Burns.

There weren’t such presentations on the sophisticated cars of the metropolitan lines.

Important Work on the High Level Bridge

Fri, 03 May 2024 15:02:42 GMT

Preparing the Trackway for Our Operating Season

Fri, 03 May 2024 15:02:41 GMT

Our next restoration project is beginning soon!

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 17:55:38 GMT

Melbourne 930 gets some love!

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 17:39:39 GMT

Melbourne 930 gets some love!

ERRS Streetcar # 1... airborne

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 17:32:01 GMT

Edmonton 1 airborne to service the main bearings

The Journey of ERR Streetcar # 1

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 17:20:37 GMT

Edmonton Car 1 had an interesting journey

ERRS is busy getting ready for spring!

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 16:43:40 GMT

ERRS is busy getting ready for spring!

Progress on Snow Sweeper Car Saskatoon 200

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 00:06:16 GMT

Snow Sweeper Car Saskatoon Municipal Railway 200 reaches a major milestone!

The Amalgation of Edmonton and Strathcona

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 23:49:07 GMT

Did you know Edmonton used to be two cities?

Years of idle talks of joining the cities together came to a head leading up to 1910, when Canadian Pacific announced it would build the High Level Bridge. this would bring a convenient, direct connection for people (and streetcars!) to the two cities. 109 Street would become the first (and still only) street in either city's traditional street grid to directly connect; meaning they would have to share a street naming system. Streetcar service would also be brought across the bridge, greatly improving commuter access to both cities, further tying them together. That's why they decorated that car in the photo!

The Inevitable finally happened. On February 12, 1912, Edmonton and Strathcona amalgamated, becoming the City of Edmonton. In 1913, the High Level Bridge would open to traffic, knitting the two cities together.

Nowadays Edmonton is very much one city, both sides of the river. but we still have the bridge, and we still drive our streetcars across it. And if you're wondering if a bridge can be romantic, people get married on the streetcar, parked in the middle of the bridge quite often.

Exploring Edmonton's Transit Heritage: The Story of Streetcar Conductorettes

webeditor@edmontonstreetcars.ca (Web Editor) — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 02:59:56 GMT

Edmonton Radial Railway Society Blog

New streetcars, parades, and exclusive tours on Saturday, June 7!

Lots in store for our very first "Streetcar Saturday"

The McKernan Line: Edmonton's Toonerville Trolley

Along Whyte Avenue By Trolley By Tony Cashman The Edmontonian, August 1965

Important Work on the High Level Bridge

Preparing the Trackway for Our Operating Season

Our next restoration project is beginning soon!

Melbourne 930 gets some love!

Melbourne 930 gets some love!

ERRS Streetcar # 1... airborne

Edmonton 1 airborne to service the main bearings

The Journey of ERR Streetcar # 1

Edmonton Car 1 had an interesting journey

ERRS is busy getting ready for spring!

ERRS is busy getting ready for spring!

Progress on Snow Sweeper Car Saskatoon 200

Snow Sweeper Car Saskatoon Municipal Railway 200 reaches a major milestone!

The Amalgation of Edmonton and Strathcona

Did you know Edmonton used to be two cities?

Exploring Edmonton's Transit Heritage: The Story of Streetcar Conductorettes

Have You Ever Heard of the Streetcar Conductorettes?

Along Whyte Avenue By Trolley
By Tony Cashman
The Edmontonian, August 1965